


In the Greatest City in the World

by fields_of_falafel



Series: The Misadventures of the Modern Hams [3]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, basically a retelling of the schuyler sisters, she's a smol kind bean, this is more eliza-centric than the song tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 06:47:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7212185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fields_of_falafel/pseuds/fields_of_falafel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Don’t tell me you’d trade all of this for staying at home all day.”</p>
<p>Angelica takes her sisters downtown for a day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Greatest City in the World

“I can’t believe we’re actually going downtown.”

“Peggy, we’re going to be fine.”

“Are you sure? Daddy wants us back by sundown.”

“Daddy doesn’t need to know, Peggs.”

“And he doesn’t want us going downtown. What are we going to do if we get caught?”

“Peggy. We’ll be fine.”

“If you want to go back, go ahead.”

“Why would you want to go back? Look around, there’s so much going on.” Angelica said, pointing to the skyscrapers around them. “There are thousands of people living and working here! There’s so much life here, do you feel it? Don’t tell me you’d trade all of this for staying at home all day.”

“But what about the Revolution?”

“Look! People shouting in the square!” Eliza pointed to the college.

“They’re being violent!” Peggy clutched Eliza’s hand.

“They’re just expressing their ideas. Come on, let’s go check it out.”

Angelica grasped Eliza’s hand and started running, which was pretty impressive since she was wearing three-inch heels. Peggy was dragged behind Eliza into the square of Colombia college, where two students were hashing it out. All three sisters watched with wide eyes as the small kid on stage yelled at his much bigger opponent. They were having such a good time and Angelica was about to jump in until she got a tap on the shoulder. She spun around, annoyed and irritated, to stare at Burr, who had a smarmy look on his face.

“Excuse me miss, I know it’s not funny,” Angelica rolled her eyes but let him continue, “but your perfume smells like your daddy’s got money.”

Before Angelica could begin yelling at him he continued, “Why you slummin’ in the city in your fancy heels,” she wanted to kick him with them, “you searchin’ for an urchin who can give you ideals?”

“Burr, you disgust me.”

His smirk grew wider. “Ah, so you’ve discussed me. I’m a trust fund baby, you can trust me!”

“Look, I’ve been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine, something you might’ve heard of if you could tear your eyes away from my tits.”

“Damn, that’s insane.”

“All you want is this revolution! I want a revelation! Thomas Jefferson is talking about how all men are created equal, but where is the female representation? It’s certainly not coming from you or any man here, and you’re _still_ looking at me like I’m a piece of fuckable meat.”

“Annie, look around, look at what’s happening. We’re lucky to be alive right now, and we shouldn’t be wasting it on him.” Eliza pleaded, dragging her sister away from Burr. Peggy followed quickly but not before sticking her tongue out at him.

“What’s next?” Peggy asked, finally looking somewhat excited.

Angelica smiled, even if it was a little strained. “Whatever you want.”

The rest of the day felt like something out of _Ferris Bueller_. Peggy dragged them to a fancy restaurant, followed by Angelica bringing them to the history museum and ended with Eliza finding a corner bookstore.

Books were Eliza’s favorite things in the entire world. She loved them to death, the smell of freshly printed pages, the feel of the spine in her hand, the neatly typed words on the page. It was heaven on earth, wrapped up in a simple binding. After twenty minutes Eliza had ten books stacked in her arms while Angelica and Peggy waited for her to finish.

After Peggy complained about wanting some ice cream from that place down the street for the second time, Eliza told the two of them to go on ahead. She’d meet them there when she finished, which wouldn’t be for a while yet. She ended up buying six out of the ten books about twenty minutes later and headed towards the ice cream parlor down the street.

On the way there she encountered a stoplight and had to wait. She really didn’t mind, she wasn’t much in the mood for ice cream anyhow. While she waited, she took stock of what was around her. To her left was a group of teenagers, obviously tourists, who looked like they were on their first trip to New York and were shamelessly spending daddy’s money. Behind her was a woman, most likely a broker, arguing about stock prices over Bluetooth. To her right was what caught her interest. To her right sat an old man, in his late sixties at the very least, sitting against a brick wall with an empty cup by his foot.

She smiled sadly. That’s the one thing she didn’t like about coming downtown, was seeing all the homeless men and women. It wasn’t fair that she had so much and they had so little. There were people starving and freezing on the streets but as long as her family had their silver dishes and expensive dresses who cared? Eliza pushed around the other people around her to stand in front of the old man. He looked up at her with the same look she saw in every homeless person’s eyes. It was a look of distrust and being hurt too many times to count.

She smiled kindly, and took all of the money out of her wallet. It wasn’t much by her standards, maybe a hundred dollars, but it would be better spent on a new coat or some food for him than her buying more clothes.

She dropped the cash into his cup and stood back up.

“Thank you.” He rasped.

“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled again. The light turned green and she crossed the street, feeling just a little bit better. If she could make a difference, even a small difference, it would matter to someone, and that’s all she needed.

A couple of minutes later she met Angelica and Peggy in the ice cream shop. Peggy was on her second cone while Angelica was quietly working on two scoops in a cup.

“Are you ready to go back yet?” Eliza asked Peggy.

“Maybe we could stick around for an hour or two?” Angelica smirked. They’d successfully converted Peggy.

They spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, at Peggy’s request. She didn’t even care that it was after sunset when they finally started heading back, even if their dad did yell a little when they finally got home.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading :D comments and kudos are always appreciated frens


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